Why I Wear This Mask
by titansfan1211
Summary: What happens when the titans go to Robin's room late one night to find the secrets Robin hides behind the mask? This is writen for Nikevi's challenge: Robin is unmasked by his friends! Hinted RobxStar


Kay, so this is writen for Nikevi's challenge:

_Robin is unmasked by his friends! Preferably in his sleep_

_Rules:_

_There's got to be something wrong with robins eye/s, a reason he masked them (scar, blindness in one eye… I don't know guys be creative!)_

So, here we go! Hope you like this!

Robin was asleep. To you and I it may seem like a normal occurence, but the titans knew better. Though Robin was only human, he never really did seem to sleep. Whenever any of his friends went to the common room, he seemed to always be there. If not, he'd be locked away in his office. They rarely saw him even enter his own room... but tonight was different.

They had been busy that day, fighting Plasmus, Cinderblock, and the Hive 5, in addition to the normal jewl theifs and purse snatchers. They were all tired, but Robin was fatigued the most. Though he always kept up with his friends, though he ran ahead of his friends into battle, though he_ seemed_ to have immense superhuman abilities, the truth was, he was only human. While his friends were only a little bit tired, he was exausted. So tonight was a rare occasion where he wished his teammates good night, and went to sleep rather early.

While the titans would never admit it, they often wondered about the boy wonder, and gossiped to each other about him.

"Dude, what's the big deal? How come he doesn't take the mask off?"

"Unlike us Beastboy, he actually has a secret identity," Raven shrugged off the comment with a roll of her eyes.

"Okay, but I took off my mask like, two minutes after meeting all of you."

"What do you mean by this 'secret identity'?" the Tamaranian asked, walking into the room.

"What the greenbean means Star, is that Robin, without the mask, has another name, a totaly different life. One where he isn't a hero. But none of y'all should go try and pry it out of him. The guy's got trust issues."

"Trust issues? I bet it's not that. I bet it's terminal zits on his eyelids!"

"Terminal what?"

"Or... or he's got bright red eyes!"

"I take affense to that," Raven said with a glare.

"Ditto," agreed Cyborg with a glare of his own.

"He he... well, you know what I mean! He's gotta have some reason for keeping the mask on! It's not like he'd have to tell us his secret identity, but like, dude! It's just a mask!"

"Must his eyes be hideous? He could merely have very lovely eyes."

"Of course you'd say that, Star. You have a major crush on Robin."

"I would never crush Robin!" she exclaimed. As the argument raged on, Raven felt like her temple was going to burst. She slamed her book shut, getting everyone's attention.

"If you're all really so curious to see Robin without the mask, why don't you just take it off of him?"

"But... but that would be invading his privacy..." Starfire pointed out timidly.

"Yea, Rae! You're all about keeping everyone's privacy! What gives?"

"First off Beastboy, if you call me 'Rae' one more time, so help me Azar I will send you to another dimension. Second, I don't care what it takes. Anything to shut all of you up."

This was the conversation that gave the four titans the courage to walk up to Robin's room, type in the overide code, and enter his room. This was the conversation that caused the titans to move foreward with painstaking quietness, and so carefully remove his mask, when suddenly...

"Ahh!" Robin woke with a lurch at the feeling of hands on his skin, eyes widening in surprise. He shot up in bed only to realize it was his friends in front of him. "Guys? What are you doing in here?" They couldn't answer though, for they were in shock, finaly seeing their leader without a mask. None looked him directly in the eye, too ashamed to tell him what they had done. At the same time, they were mesmerised by his beautiful blue eyes. His eyes were not pure blue, but had swirls of gold and silver and green and grey mixed in his iris. The most beautiful eyes in the world, his to posess.

"Robin, we were wondering... why do you wear a mask?" Starfire his the offending piece of cloth behind her back.

"I guess it's a fair question, though I don't understand why you're asking it now... but when I was little, I lived in a circus until a freak accident killed my parents. After that, I moved from foster home to foster home until I met Batman. He took me in as a foster son. One day while I was patroling around the city in Gotham, an old friend of mine from the circus found me. She knew who I was under the mask," he looked Raven straight in the eyes, "And she was pissed." Raven said nothing.

"But why was she mad at you, Robin?" Asked Starfire.

"What could she hold against you if you were friends with her?"

"Yea, dude? Did you like, stand her up on a date back in the circus? Heh he-..." He glared at Beastboy, affectively shutting him up.

"Actually, she was mad that I left the circus in the first place. And that I didn't say goodbye. But it wasn't my fault. We were really close, and I would've said goodbye, but social services hauled me away before I had the chance." He looked down at his hands, as he told the rest of his tale.

"She was a sorceress, a real sorceress, and had unimaginable powers. In her family's act she pretended like it was all a trick. It wasn't. And having a sorceress mad at you isn't a very good thing. She ended up casting a spell on me that night." He looked up at the metal man when he heard Cyborg's question.

"So, what kind of spell was it?"

"And what does that have to do with you not taking off your mask?" added Starfire.

"It wasn't exactly a spell, it was more like a curse. A very powerful one at that."

"What curse?" Starfire asked, somewhat scared, as she met Robin's gaze.

"Medusa's curse." He looked down again, ashamed. "She made it so that if I ever took my mask off, looked anyone in the eyes, they'd turn to stone. That's why I left Gotham. I knew Batman would be disapointed that I had fallen into such an easy trap, and I didn't want to risk hurting him. I went to Zatanna, but she wasn't able to lift the curse. I vowed to never take off the mask again, for fear of killing anyone, turning them to stone. So you see guys, I don't take off the mask so I don't kill you all. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if anything happened to you." He sat back, and waited for a response. He never got one.

"Guys? I know it's shocking, but I'm still me... it's not like I'm gonna go evil or something... guys?"

A gust of wind blew in from his open window, and he was shocked when he felt the bitter cold on his face. Usually the mask blocked out any- oh no. He slowly reached a hand up to his face, and felt where his mask should have been. That's when he realized- his mask was gone.

With overlapping senses of dispair and worry, he reached for his lamp, pulled the string to find...

In front of him four stone statues stood of the people he onced considered family, his mask clutched in Starfire's stone hand.

"No..."

* * *

And that's the end of that. I hope you all enjoyed, especially you Nikevi! I know it was strange, but I think it turned out good. Let me know what you think!


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